Public Transportation

***I am back in America, but these are the blogs that I began before I left Kenya this summer. I tried to remember everything that happened, but let's face it, I'm getting old...***

It's been a while since my last post, so I will try to bring you up to speed. I am super excited to share that I have over 1,200 views on my blog. This may not seem like a big deal, but that means that people heard about the work being done here in Kenya over 1,000 times. Thank you for reading and for sharing what God is doing!

So after we took the first group back to the airport and after our day of rest, the rest of the week was spent working on "the list." We received "the list" the first week we were here. James and Kenya put together some things that could be done around he house if we ever had a bit of time here in Malindi between galavanting around Africa. It was quite a long list when we started at the beginning of the summer, but I am happy to announce that we did MOST of the things on the list. On Wednesday, Kara, Julie, and I cut pieces of linoleum flooring to put in the guest houses while Brittany and Logan fixed the generator. Clayton started a couple of projects he wanted to get finished. On Thursday, we painted walls and started working on creating answer booklets for the Bible School (Landmark Baptist Bible Institute) here. Then on Friday morning when we were doing Insanity, I guess I pulled a muscle in my back because it was quite difficult to move at all for the latter part of the day (and for several days after). After breakfast we had a language class with Gertrude where she taught us some new things to say when we are greeting people and gave us some new Swahili sentences. I love having class with Gertrude! She's such a good teacher and I love the language! After that, we finished up some of our projects. Clayton even ventured onto the roof to try to get rid of the bats that live there. He poured bleach down the clay shingles and the bats did not like it. It was fun to watch. Unfortunately, this was only a temporary fix because the bats have returned. Friday night was Taco Night! Every Friday, the Taylors have a family night. They have tacos and watch a movie as a family. Sometimes there is a theme and the kids have activities that they can do that pertains to the movie that is shown. This night was Epic. The kids had some activity sheets about the different characters in the movie and about nature. It was a good little movie.

On Saturday we went to the church and tore down the Sunday School building. This was the very first building that the church here in Malindi built to meet in several years ago. As we tore down the building, several things were going through my head. I kept thinking that this is what our lives as Christians look like sometimes. God does a great work in us, then we let it sit for a long time. Eventually God needs to tear us down to the foundation to rebuild something stronger to protect us from the elements. He should always be our foundation, and we need to be careful not to let our lives become stagnant. Don't get discouraged if you're in the process of being torn down right now, if God is teaching you something. He is rebuilding you to be stronger. It's so wonderful to work at the church every Saturday. Several church members (especially the youth group) show up to help with whatever is being done, even if it's just cutting the grass. We started by taking off the roof of the Sunday School building. Do you remember when I told you about the raining ants when James was fixing the roof? Well you can imagine what was in the roof (which is made out of makuti-or dried leaves). We pulled off each section, and as we were doing so, insects (very interesting-looking ones), lizards, grubs, flying things, and mud came off with it. After a while, I was given the job of sweeping out the church because my back was still in a lot of pain. I ended up sweeping the church out several times because it rained and everyone was tracking in mud to bring the supplies and frame posts back and forth. They ended up getting the basic frame finished for the Sunday School building. We all ate together and had a great day.

The next day we had church. Kara taught Sunday school and did an amazing job! She taught about creation and had leaves for all of the kids to place under a piece of paper to do a crayon impression. During the church service we sang a special with Gertrude. She taught us a song during our Swahili class on Friday and we all went up there in front of the church and sang. It's a beautiful song and we had fun singing it! After church, the girls (Julie, Brittany, Kara, and myself) went over to Margaret's house. Margaret is one of the young ladies at our church that we've gotten to know a little bit. She invited us to her house for lunch and to teach us how to make chapatis. Chapatis are like delicious flour tortillas, only a little fluffier. This was one of my favorite moments in Kenya. Being invited into someone's home to learn different things about their culture is such an honor. As we approached the door and took off our shoes, I happened to look up above the door frame. There, suspended from the wall, was a spider, about 4 or 5 inches long. I tried not to freak out as we walked under it to go into the house. When we asked Margaret about this later she told us that the spiders ate the other bugs, so they were good and didn't bite. Yeah, right. We just kept our distance and our eyes on the spider. First, she made us sandwiches. We weren't sure what kind of sandwiches these were, so we gave simple compliments. Kara, one of the sweetest people I've ever met in my entire life, was extremely appreciative and asked what kind of sandwich is was. Margaret simply said "butter." We've since laughed about this moment as we reflected on our buttered bread and what a big deal we made over it. After lunch and meeting her family, we learned how to make the chapatis. She brought out her little hot box to begin cooking. We boiled water and mixed it with the flour. Margaret was mixing this with her hands like it was no big deal, so Julie wanted to try. This is when we all learned that African women's hand are much tougher than our dainty little American hands. We all got a chance to roll out the dough and make our chapatis. Ours weren't as good as Margaret's, but we were proud none the less.

We had to get in bed early because the next day we were going to experience something none of us would ever forget. Public Transportation. I don't know what it is about 4AM, but James loves leaving the house before the sun comes out. He had gone into town Sunday to buy us some bus tickets. Clayton will be moving to Kenya next summer to begin Farming God's Way, a program that helps teach people about Biblical farming principles. In order to be as influential as possible, he needs to go to a Swahili language school. Our bus trip was to a prospective language school in Tanzania. We had to make it all the way to Mombasa to catch our bus before 7AM. Driving in the dark is such a scary thing because you can't really see all of the people that are walking or riding their bicycles in the street. It's really scary at 4:30 in the morning, but we made it to Mombasa on time. We boarded our charter bus and began our trip, but then stopped about 15 minutes later. We were told that we had to get off the bus to cross the ferry. Mombasa is a little island city, so crossing the ferry is something thousands of people have to do every day since Mombasa is the second largest city in Kenya. Problem is, we didn't know where we were supposed to go after we got to the other side to get back to our bus. This didn't stop us. We got off the bus and headed toward the crowd, and I do mean crowd. There were tons of people flocking toward the ferry. At one point we had to wait for the gates to open and while we were waiting a man began preaching in swahili. We were trying to make out what he was saying, but then the crowd began moving again. After the short little ride, we made it to the other side, but we still had no idea where we were going. This is one of those moments that you realize just how far out of your home culture you really are. Luckily, we found some other people that we recognized from our bus and followed them through the crowded marketplace and down the street to a gas station where the attendant wanted to charge us to go to the bathroom. We waited there on the corner for a little while with the rest of the people from our bus. Finally the bus arrived and we boarded for our trip across the border.

At the border, we were a little unsure of the process, but we were guided by some helpful people. Since we were American, we had to go to a different line where they charged us double for a multiple entry visa. We weren't expecting to pay that much, so we all had to scrounge around our bags for some American money. After a little skirmish over our money not looking real, we FINALLY got everything squared away and were able to get back on the bus to continue our journey. It's interesting to see America from the outside. We are so rich from everyone else's point of view. It's true, though. There are so many things we take for granted in the States. Just having this computer to type on is a huge deal. Anyway, we traveled for a few more hours to Tanga. Tanga isn't where the language school is, but that's where the guy that sold us our bus tickets told us we had to stop and buy another one to where we needed to go. That would have been fine if he had been right. So there we were with no tickets and no way to get new ones because we were no where near the bus station. Praise God for a little man who helped James figure out what we were really supposed to do. He even held up the entire trip to take us to the bus station to get new tickets. James rode on a piki piki (motorcycle) through the streets of Tanga to get to the station, while the rest of us followed behind on the charter bus. God was truly showing how awesome He is throughout this trip.

After getting the correct tickets, we found out that we needed to get off at a little city called Chalinze where we would then need to board a dala dala (a van) to go another hour west to the little Language School. That is also where we would need to return to in order to catch the big charter bus back to Mombasa. So we did as we were told and the same nice young fellow that helped us earlier helped us find a dala dala that would take us right to the school. We watched the sun set as we rode on the last leg of our journey. Exhausted, we finally got to the language school, which looked deserted. We found the dining hall where the person in charge gave us our room keys. We settled in before grabbing a bite to eat in the dining hall. I can't remember exactly what we ate, but I do remember it being interesting. We got to chat with some current students about the classes and about where they were from. After dinner we met for a little bit to read through our book. It was quite an exhausting day.

The next morning we woke up nice and early to get a start on the tour of the school. We had a tour all lined up to see the whole grounds and to travel into Morogoro, the nearby city. The view around the school is absolutely breathtaking! The red dirt contrasted with the blue sky is a picturesque setting to learn a language and a culture. We went into the city and ended up buying quite a lot of literature in Swahili. There is so much more available in Tanzania than in Kenya, so James went ahead and stocked up on some of the things he's been looking for. The headmaster of the school lead us around until he had to go back for a class (he actually stayed later than his class because he was assisting us, so he was late because he wanted to make sure we were taken care of). We wandered around for a while looking for something to eat and finally just decided to go to this outdoor place. BEST DECISION EVER! The food was amazing. I'm pretty sure we ordered another round of food. We then went to a nearby store to buy some dessert (candy and ice cream) before heading back to the language school. We all spent the rest of the afternoon reading, walking around, and studying God's Word before dinner. After dinner we had another session of our book discussion. We also found out that one of the little girls from the church had fallen from a terrace on a building and died. She was only 4 years old I believe. We were all a little shaken from the news. We prayed for her family before hitting the hay for our journey back the next day.

We took the dala dala back to Chalinze where we had to catch the bus. While we were there, we got a little breakfast of chapatis, chai, and oranges. During our breakfast, we were approached by an older American man who noticed we were American, so we invited him to sit with us. He was in the Peace Corp and had been working in a village nearby. We chatted with him for a good while. It was nice to get to fellowship with another American and to hear his journey. We watched closely for our bus so we would be sure not to miss it. There were quite a few charter buses that passed through this stop. Every time a bus rolled through, about 75 people ran beside the bus holding up their products to sell to the people. This ranged from fruit and drinks to baskets and shoes. This was how these people made money. It was such a wonder that none of these people got run over. They would literally run beside the bus holding up bags and bags of items. It was quite a sight. Our bus did eventually roll through, and we were able to get on this time without any major issues.

We did have to cross over the border again, and we weren't quite sure if they were going to stop and charge us for anything. Surprisingly, it went very smoothly, and we were on our way to Mombasa. Once we got close to Mombasa, the traffic was so back up that we decided just to get off the bus and walk. We made it back across the ferry and found a Nakumatt (like Walmart). While we were there, we ran into a couple of our missionary friends who were actually buying stuff to come to our house the next day for the Fourth of July. We had Pizza Inn for dinner before piling (all 7 of us and the driver) into a tiny tuk tuk to go to the bus station to catch a matatu back to Malindi. We got home around 10 PM after being on the road since 5 AM.

The next day was the Fourth of July! We spent the morning cooking and getting everything ready for our American guests from Mombasa and other nearby areas. It was so much fun! The kids had planned some relay games and we split into teams. We had so much fun being with everyone! We even watched The Patriot on the projector in the living room. The next day most of our guests left before noon. It was a great opportunity to talk with different missionaries about life on the mission field. I know God has called me to serve Him in missions in some form or fashion, so it was so wonderful learning different things from these people who have dedicated their lives to serving God.

The rest of the day we cleaned up a little bit and did some things around the house. On Friday we began working on the things we needed to get ready for the second group to arrive. Saturday we spent the morning at the church. They finished up everything except the makuti on the building. Painting was finished, the framing was finished, and we even fixed up a few things in the main building. I enjoyed playing with the kids while the guys finished the poles on the building. We went to a new little place for lunch and it was delicious. We went back to the house and Brittany and Logan decided to go out for their anniversary. The rest of us watched a movie. Right before we started the movie, we realized that Logan and Brittany left the intern phone at the house. It was not funny then, but we can sit back and kind of laugh about how much we all freaked out a little that they were out in the middle of the city at dark with no phone. James went into super-protective mode until they returned safely. They enjoyed their time out alone where they could just spend time with one another. It's a big step to come all the way to another country with your fiancé to be an intern. During the summer we all made plans to attend their wedding in January.

Sunday morning was a great service. I got to teach Sunday School. I taught the kids about Moses and the Red Sea. I brought along a pan and filled it with water. I let the kids come up to see if they could blow enough water out of the way to make dry ground for the Israelites to cross the Red Sea. The kids had fun. They ran an extension cord all the way from Kleopas' house next door to power the keyboard and electric guitar. The congregation loved having the instruments in service! After church we went back to the house. We invited Margaret over to the house to teach her how to bake a cake. They do a lot of cooking in Kenya, but not a whole lot of baking. They usually just cook over an open fire or charcoal, so baking isn't usually an option. We taught Margaret about measuring and baking, but our cake didn't turn out as tasty as we would have hoped. We even showed Margaret how to jump on the trampoline for the first time. What a memory we made that day. We drove Margaret back to her house (by this time Logan had gotten pretty good at driving through town on the wrong side of the road) and saw some of the boys from the church as well hanging out down the street. After we returned to the house, we had our Sunday Night English service. It really is frustrating sometimes having to listen to all services in Swahili. I'm getting a lot better at picking out certain words and I can now figure out what the sermons are about, but it sure is nice to learn in English.

On Monday, we loaded up and headed to Mombasa. There were some things we needed to get done before the groups came in. We stopped to buy some metal poles to put in the ground so they could get settled before the groups came for the camp. We went down to Miritini and put the poles in the ground. We also met with the headmaster to get a schedule all lined out. There was just one problem. There was a teacher strike going on in Kenya. Apparently this happens pretty often. It's very similar to the way teachers are treated in the US. Little pay and no supplies. The nursery school teachers were still working, so we were really going to depend on them for help during our basketball camp since the other classes wouldn't be in session. We were concerned that we wouldn't even have children to come to our camp. After meeting with the school and cementing the poles in the ground, we traveled to some office so that James could get some paperwork done. In America, most of our things are done electronically. In Kenya, there is so much corruption that there needs to be a paper trail for everything. I don't even think he could take care of all of his stuff because there are so many hoops to jump through. We met up with Kenya and the kids and went to the movies! We got to see Monsters University. While I was in the movie theater with my 3D glasses on I forgot that I was in Africa. When we walked out of the theater, the sites and smells brought me back to Kenya. We headed over to Java House to get some coffee before our trip back to Malindi.

Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday were spent getting everything ready for the second group. We made the beds, cleaned the houses, got all of our camping equipment aired out and ready, and even worked on "the list" a little bit. The biggest challenge to get through was the visitor in our bedroom. On Tuesday night, we discovered that a giant rat was living in our room. It was one of the most hilarious and most terrifying experiences of the summer. We found out that he had been eating Julie's Starbursts from her night stand. How did we find this out? Well, as I looked in my closet, there were rat droppings everywhere (I know…disgusting) and in the bottom of my closet were half eaten Starbusts. GROSS!!! The rat had been hanging out with my clothes! AHHHHH! We tried several different ways to kill it, but to no avail. At one point Kara was ready with the lid to the hamper and when she was ready to open the closet and cover it, it jumped on her head!!!! We set a trap, but we never did catch that rat…

It was hard to fall asleep that night, and the rest of the nights after that.

I will write another blog about the second team's trip. There is so much that happened that this blog would go on and on. Tune in next time.

In Christ,
Ashley